Engages in an extended discussion of the importance of the idea of a loyal opposition.

On Loyalty and Loyalties

The Contours of a Problematic Virtue

John Kleinig

Description

Deep friendship may express profound loyalty, but so too may virulent nationalism. What can and should we say about this Janus-faced virtue of the will? This volume explores at length the contours of an important and troubling virtue — its cognates, contrasts, and perversions; its strengths and weaknesses; its awkward relations with universal morality; its oppositional form and limits; as well as the ways in which it functions in various associative connections, such as friendship and familial relations, organizations and professions, nations, countries, and religious tradition.

On Loyalty and Loyalties

The Contours of a Problematic Virtue

John Kleinig

Author Information

John Kleinig, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, USA/ Australia

John Kleinig is a philosopher who taught in Australia until 1986 — working mostly on moral and social philosophy — when he moved to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York, where he taught mainly police ethics and social philosophy. Recently retired from CUNY, he remains as Strategic Research Professor and Professor of Policing Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Australia.

On Loyalty and Loyalties

The Contours of a Problematic Virtue

John Kleinig

Reviews and Awards

"John Kleinig's book is a thoughtful and thorough examination of loyalty and its ethical significance. It presents an original account of loyalty's place among the virtues and insightful discussions of several difficult questions on which considerations of loyalty bear, ranging across professional and applied ethics and social and political philosophy." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews